Sounding Alarm
by Zarame
Summary: When an unknown organization captures prisoners and Roy Mustang's life is placed in jepordy, everyone must work together in order to save them before it's too late.
1. Office Reports

Reading Fullmetal's reports was both one of General Mustang's most favorite and hated pastimes. Over time the reports had gotten more coherent, as Edward Elric had gotten older and more used to the military's demands. But the reports were still written with a sloppy disregard for the opinions of whoever was reading them. He'd do everything from talking about this one restaurant that had the sauce for the chicken just _perfect_, to ranting on about how 'stupid the military is when they have their authoritative hats screwed on to tight and are digging themselves an early grave'.

They were quite enjoyable to read. Mustang learned a lot about Edward from the events he _didn't_ put into his reports. And Edward had such a unique way of looking at things that Mustang often found himself telling Hawkeye that no, he did not need medical attention, he was holding his stomach in an attempt to keep from rolling around on the floor in hysterics.

But every time Mustang read the reports he found himself wincing at how wrong someone who didn't know the Fullmetal Alchemist could take everything he wrote. He supposed after years of reading the oddly phrased comments all of his superiors had gotten used to the reports, but someone new always took it wrong. The time the former General had burst into is office demanding that Fullmetal be sent in for a mental evaluation had been particularly bad. Especially when Mustang had had to explain to Edward why he was going to the shrink. That had been frustrating and embarrassing.

Although, no matter how much he liked the written reports, hearing it straight from the horse's mouth, as they say, was much more interesting.

Edward sat sprawled on the small couch a little to the left of Mustang's desk. One leg was hooked up over the arm and his hands were folded beneath his head. His trademark red coat hung over the back of his seat as if he had taken up residence in Mustang's office.

"What are you doing here Fullmetal?" asked Roy.

"I was taking a nap until you had to start interrogating me." Edward didn't even open his eyes.

Mustang nearly snorted. Interrogation. Is that what they were calling innocent questions these days?

"Then why don't you take your nap elsewhere? I do have work to do," said Mustang, knowing full well that he wouldn't actually work on it until Hawkeye got around to threatening him.

"Nah, your couch is nice and cozy, besides you can't order me to do anything. You're not my commanding officer anymore," replied Edward.

"And you're not trying to nap in General Harrier's office because…?" Roy trailed off.

"Because the last time I did that she dumped maple syrup on me. And she had done something to it so that I couldn't get if off with alchemy. Do you know how long it took to get that stuff out of my hair?" Now Edward did open his eyes, lifting a hand to run it lovingly through his bangs.

Normally Mustang would have been tempted to smirk and tease Edward about how much he looked like a girl doing that, and maybe that was why he was vertically challenged, all the energy went into growing hair. He didn't though, neither having the interest or the energy to deal with a furious Edward.

"Then get out of my office and go home Fullmetal," said Mustang, starting to get annoyed. He actually did have work to do and probably should be getting around to doing it.

"Not until you agree to come to the party that Ms. Hughes is holding. She said none of us military people ever celebrate the festivals right. There's supposed to be a lot of good food and we're going to play piñata."

Again, a wide-open invitation to say something about Edward's height and what that would do to his piñata skills. He wasn't usually this bad at the game. Mustang ignored the opening.

"So? Do I get to leave your boring office or not?" demanded Edward.

"The door's right there Fullmetal. All you have to do is walk over and open it," said Mustang, deliberately misunderstand what was asked.

Edward frowned at him. "Are you coming to the party or not?" he asked.

"I have lots of work to do…" Roy began.

"No you don't. I talked to Hawkeye. Surprisingly enough she said you have absolutely no work to do. She said you've been getting it all done on time and she hasn't even had to threaten you," said Edward.

"You talked to Hawkeye?"

Edward nodded affirmative. "And Gracia and Havoc. Now are you coming to the party or not?"

"If it will get you out of my office," said Mustang.

"I'm gone, General," Edward said briskly as he jumped up off the couch and headed towards the door. "The party's at six in that park by Gracia's place. You know, that one with the creek that goes off into the forest?"

"I know where it is Fullmetal."

"Good. See you then."

As the door shut behind Fullmetal's retreating figure, his red coat now draped over his left shoulder, Mustang wondered what he had gotten himself into. There was no way he wanted to go to a party, he'd much rather be a home enjoying a nice book in front of the fire, but maybe he would go.

Looking down at his empty desk and seeing that there actually wasn't any work that he needed to do was rather telling. He did need to have a break, and maybe going to the party for a little while, he certainly wouldn't stay the entire time, would be good for him.

He hadn't talked to Gracia much since Maes' death. Maybe a party full of other people where no one could make much of it would be a good time to start again. He did miss Alicia.

"General?" came the muffled voice of Hawkeye through the closed door.

"Come in," Mustang called.

"General, Edward Elric just told me to clear all of your meetings today after six o'clock," she said.

"Did he now?" mumbled Mustang.

"Sir?"

"That's right Hawkeye. It seems we're going to a party," he said.

Hawkeye's lips twitched up in a smile before she nodded her head and spun around to exit his office.

Looking down at his empty desk Mustang felt a smile stretch across his face, too.

* * *

"I believe I've discovered our opportune moment, sir."

"Oh?"

"It seems Brigadier General Mustang will be attending a party off military grounds tonight."

"Very good."

* * *

Please Review and Return.

01/15/06 11:35


	2. The ice!

Alicia lifted up her bat and aimed resolutely where she_ thought_ the piñata was. It had graciously been lowered a few feet from where it had been originally positioned—much to Ed-nisan's dismay when he had realized that, of the people playing, only he and Alicia were left for the first round. He had been so mad that the bat had been thrown out of his hand on the swing and nearly hit Uncle Roy. Roy had looked at the bat, looked at Edward, and then promptly snapped his fingers and burned the bat to ashes.

The bat Alicia was now holding had been the spare. An older bat that was a little bit heavier than the other one. She struggled with it for a while, finally just swinging it up to rest on her shoulder. She planted her feet roughly shoulder length apart, just as her Daddy had taught her, and swung the bat with all her might, yelling at the top of her lungs.

The piñata made a muffled yelp.

Alicia dropped the bat immediately and quickly slipped the blindfold off her eyes. In front of her sat the short, black-haired man, Fury, holding his shoulder and looking dazed, his glasses skewed slightly on his nose.

"I told you not to stand so close to the piñata," said Havoc in a joking voice. "You never know when little girls will have killer swings." He dropped down in front of Fury and carefully unbuttoning his shirt halfway down and peeled it back over his shoulder. There was a raised red welt on the flesh, beginning to turn darker in the center.

"Definitely gonna have a bruise," said Breda walking up to the pair on the ground. "Up, its gonna need ice."

"Come on, I'll help you," said Havoc.

"Th-That's okay. I can do it," stuttered Fury, his cheeks slightly red.

"I'll get ice," burst out of Alicia's mouth. "I'm sorry I hit you. I'll get ice."

"No, really, it's okay. I-It's just a little bump and-"

"I'll get ice," Alicia yelled again, spinning around and running for her mom.

"Mommy. Mommy. There's ice in the cooler right?" She tugged on her mother's sleeve.

"Yes, dear. And I believe your Uncle Roy already went to grab some," she replied calmly.

"'Kay!" Alicia yelled, sprinting off in the direction of the cooler. People passed by in a whirl as she ran.

There was Armstrong, shining pink sparklies at Hawkeye as she sat on the bench, sipping tea and listening quietly as he went on about Armstrong family traditions. Winry, Al-nisan, and Sheska sat in a circle on a picnic blanket. They were playing some game with dice and cards. To the left of them, only barley out of hearing, stood Ed-nisan and the General Lady. Mom had said it was impolite to call her that but the General Lady had just laughed. She said her name was Dustine Harrier, but that Alicia could call her whatever she liked. Alicia stuck with the General Lady.

The General Lady and Ed-nisan stood squared off against each other. They were yelling at the top of their lungs, both with faint smiles on their faces. Alicia didn't understand why no one else saw the smiles. They all tried to avoid being with both the General Lady and Ed-nisan at the same time. But she liked watching, her eyes swinging back and forth between them, even if she didn't always understand them.

"Uncle Roy!" she shouted, spotting him up ahead of her.

He blinked up at her from his bent position over the cooler. Standing up with the ice in one hand, he tipped the lid of the cooler down with his foot, and leaned back against the tree.

They were at a beautiful spot at the edge of the forest. The trees hung down over them, branches heavy with vibrant mixes of red, orange, and yellow leaves. The air was crisp with cool breezes and you could see the sunset perfectly. The creek was a quietly laughing run of water just out of sight through the trees.

"Young lady, would you please be careful with my subordinates? I might need them." She looked up to find him arching an eyebrow at her.

"Yes sir. Sorry. I really didn't mean to hit him," she answered.

"I know you didn't. It's just that-" He broke off abruptly looking into the forest.

"Is that a bird?" Alicia asked excitedly, having heard something like a 'chirp-click' at the same time Uncle Roy had.

Uncle Roy looked at her quizzically for a second. "I don't know."

"They let's go see," bubbled Alicia, clapping her hands and zipping off into the forest.

"Alicia, wait!"

She thought that maybe she'd tripped when something hit the back of her head and the world went dark.

* * *

01/26/06 2:39 


	3. Missing

I decided to go almost entirely English with this one, so while there may be an occasional niisan or neechan (older brother/older sister) there shouldn't be too much more Japanese.

Enjoy.

* * *

"You had that freaky subordinate of yours follow me around all through that mission in Silvric didn't you?" 

"Of course. Since you weren't going with Alphonse I knew you'd need someone of at least average height to help you reach the windows in order to sneak into places."

"I didn't actually go into the place, and WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT THEY NEED A TRAMPOLINE JUST TO GET UP ON THE SIDEWALK?"

"You, actually. But I was thinking more of a spring board than a trampoline. You'd probably have a hard time getting up on the trampoline."

"WHO ARE YOU-"

"Edward, shut up."

"Why should I-!"

"Fullmetal, be quite."

Edward Elric snapped his mouth shut violently and viciously suppressed the urge to start shouting again. In the short time he had been with General Harrier, about a year, he had learned three very definite things about her:

1) She had a thing for her subordinate, Donovan, who was probably a former spy, or assassin, or something. He was absolutely silent when he moved and he had a way of looking at someone and instantly scaring coherent thought out of them (Ed had experienced this first hand when he had 'accidentally' knocked the glass of milk General Harrier had handed to him all over Donovan's paperwork). Donovan was always sent after Ed to "make sure you don't get into trouble", but Ed believed that it was mainly to make him miserable.

2) Never, ever, _ever,_ mess with her cat. Besides the fact that the thing had claws three inches long (I kid you not!) and happily tore people to shreds at ever opportunity (except the General of course) Harrier loved her cat and was very protective of it. Once, when Havoc had tossed his smoking cigarette onto the cat and burned her fur, Harrier had strung him upside down from the roof of HQ, naked except for a pair of underwear with yellow and pink hearts on them, for an entire day. He looked like a red tomato from the sunburn for the next eight days. No one had ever seen him smoke in Harrier's office again.

3) The more angry or serious she was the more polite and formal she got. Ed was always Edward or Elric, Al was Alphonse, and Mustang was Roy, as soon as she started using titles, or adding Mr. or Ms. to those not in the military, you knew something was up. Using 'be quite' over 'shut up' was definitely a bad sign.

"What is it?" Edward asked quietly, the earlier anger at his commanding officer forgotten.

Seemingly ignoring him General Harrier spun of her heel and marched back towards the bigger group of party goers. Edward followed at what he thought as a safe distance, looking around to see what had disturbed her.

Winry, Al, and Sheska were on a picnic blanket playing Winry's weird Luck of the Die/Poker creation with single-minded enthusiasm. Gracia stood in front of Hawkeye and Armstrong, who were both sitting on a park bench, talking. Fury, Breda, and Havoc stood over by the piñata. Well, Breda and Havoc were standing and Fury was kind of listing to the side being supported by them both. Ed decided he'd have to ask about that later.

Looking around he expected to find Alicia happily chewing on a piece of candy or something similar, but she was no where to be seen. Neither was Mustang but Ed wasn't really surprised over that, he had expected his oddly behaving former commander to have snuck out early.

"Where's Alicia?" Ed mumbled under his breath, already beginning to get worried.

"And where's General Mustang?" replied Harrier.

"Oh, he probably left for home already."

"I didn't see him leave and his coat's still on the table."

Ed blinked and stared at the blue military jacket resting on the table. It had to be Mustang's since it sported the General's insignia on it and Harrier was still wearing her jacket. But why would Mustang leave without his coat? Simple, he wouldn't. So why wasn't he here? And where was he? Where was Alicia?

They had just reached the rest of the group when Harrier called out, "Ms. Hughes, have you seen Ms. Alicia or General Mustang?"

"They both went over to the cooler to get some ice. Alicia accidentally hit Mr. Fury with the piñata bat."

So that's what's with Fury, thought Edward as he turned to look out at the cooler.

Neither Mustang nor Alicia stood next to it.

Suddenly Ed realized that something was off. Maybe it was the lack of birds singing or that the forest was so dark you could see into it, but he was suddenly running. Running as fast as he could towards the abandoned cooler. Something made him run past it and into the woods, ignoring the cooler as if it wasn't there.

He froze inside the edge of the forest, only unconsciously noting that the others did the same behind him. The scene before him had all his attention.

The small clearing was covered in broken branches. Torn leaves were scattered all over the ground along with the two ribbons that had tied Alicia's hair up and one of her shoes. Roy's pocket-watch lay face up beside a massive mossy rock.

What scared Ed the most was when he reached down for the watch and picked it up his fingertips came away tipped with blood and a blackish stain of the stuff soaked into the ground at his feet.

* * *

Review and Return 

And Reviewing is a good thing. Credit goes to Anutheal who kept me from abandoning this story.

I will finish it! If only so that I can torture Roy! Well, and maybe a few other people too...

03/27/063:46


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